The Heiress

Chapter Two

I reviewed the records of this Ericka Valderama. She’s the newly appointed CEO of the famous sports manufacturing company here in the country. She’s the daughter of the late Francisco Reyes, who ranked 12th in the country’s top 50 richest men. She married Angelo Valderama, the head of the most excellent Valderama Law Firm and has three children: Marcus, who is taking up Political Science, Cairo, who is taking up Business Administration both in Lancaster University and Aicka, who is taking up Psychology in Carnahan.

I flipped the page to see her tomorrow’s schedule. I was surprised. Mum really made an effort to this. I can tell that she’s already improving. She’s getting a lot of sources too, which is great. However, too much sources can sometimes lead to something erratically wrong. The schedule says that by 8 am, she has a meeting with the company’s investors and by 11:30 am, she’ll be having lunch with their Japanese partners at an Asian restaurant. By 2:30, she’s going to drop by at CCIAS Theater Hall to watch her daughter’s first college recital as a ballerina. I stopped reading. So it means that this Aicka is a member of Prims and she’s part of the tyros that will be performing tomorrow.

I smiled and stared clearly at the paper. No way, I thought. This is going to be fun because this is work and passion rolled up into one. Being further up the ladder, I’m part of tomorrow’s technical committee but I guess I need to trade places with someone from the food committee. Clearly, the food committee is responsible for the food of the special guests. Since we’re going to have a very special guest, we have to serve her the best. Yes, you’re getting the picture.

I took my other phone. Eros, Emmett’s older brother, told me that I should use two numbers: one for family use and another for open use. Well, I asked him to buy me another phone and he got me the newest Samsung model for my public number since my iPhone is for my private number, perks of coming from an almost wealthy family. I use my public number for school, especially. I dialed Luisa’s. I’m not sure if she’s part of the food committee and I don’t even know who this Luisa is. I only know two people from the club, Miss K and Miss Alyssa. I don’t have this habit to remember the people around me. I don’t know but it just instinctively happens ever since I was a kid. I remember when I was in grade school to high school, I never knew anyone in the school, even the teachers. My classmates are afraid to talk to me or approach me because of my naturally cold and distant personality. Things changed when I reached college because I became partly free and also because I am able to join a ballet organization where I can disrobe the Saavedra overalls that cover me. I started to smile and talk more. I started to have my phone number disseminated to the club’s members and to my teachers and classmates, too but I really don’t remember any of them so I categorize them by using icons in my contacts. All Prims registered in my phone has a silhouette of a ballerina as an icon so I can distinguish them from the others.

“H-hey, Veronica…” She nervously answered the phone after three rings.

“Luisa? Hey.” I don’t know how to make a phone conversation work, really. “You’re part of the food committee, aren’t you?”

“Uh, haha. Yeah.” I can still feel the tension in her voice. Bingo! Luck and fate is really on my side today and I love it. “Why?”

“I’d like to trade places with you. I mean me… from the technical committee to transfer to yours.” I drummed my fingers on the table waiting for her response. I really don’t know how to converse well with other people. This is one of my weak points, I lack interpersonal skills. Can you blame me? They forbid me from having any friends so how can I even improve this distinction?

“Oh—of course. Sure. I’ll just tell Miss Alyssa.” Alyssa is Miss K’s assistant. She’s eight years younger than her. She also has this pale vampire-like skin though it doesn’t sparkle in sunlight and slender long legs.